INDIANAPOLIS — Many families need help supervising their child’s e-learning, especially if they work during the day or lack the internet or Wi-Fi to do virtual learning.
An organization called The Mind Trust set up “community learning sites” across Indianapolis to help.
One site on the far east side is located at the Reset Center.
Kids from all across the city, not just from one school district, all e-learning under one roof.
“We’ve got K-8, and we have 14 different schools represented here,” Howard Harding, the executive director of the Reset Center, said. “Charter schools, IPS schools, Warren Township schools, so we have everything that’s represented here.”
The Reset Center was asked by The Mind Trust to turn their facility into a “community learning site” once schools decided just days before the school year began to go fully virtual.
“The Mind Trust contacted us on I believe it was around August 10 and they said we need your help,” Harding said. “We want you to partner with us to do a center for e-learning and it needs to be ready on August 17. And it was like what?!”
“I struggle on like fractions and stuff so the adults help me with that,” Shanice Boyd, a Paramount School of Excellence sixth-grader, said. “I kind of like working here because I can focus better than being at home. Because I have a lot going on at home. So being here helps me focus a lot more.”
“I like that I can hang out with friends and make sure I’m on my work when I’m supposed to,” Hope Thomas, a Phalen Leadership Academy at George H. Fisher School 93 fourth-grader, said.
“We are able to help them,” Harding said. “I have a very qualified staff to help them do what they need to do and we are hands-on so it’s a benefit to the family as well as the kids as well.”
Providing lunch daily and snacks, too, this service is critical for so many families who lost jobs or work during the day.
“We can have up to 300 people on Wi-Fi at one time without any slow down. So it works well for the kids because at any given time we have 25 to 30 kids on Wi-Fi along with staff and along with things that we need to do," Harding said. "So it’s a benefit to the kids, the families, because some of these people are struggling and they can’t afford Wi-Fi. But they can drop their kids off here and be on Wi-Fi with a strong signal and don’t miss a beat with respect to their school.”
Making sure families bounce back from the pandemic once this trying time is all over, Harding said.
“Coming together and working together, it will work," Harding said. "That’s the nature of our country. We are a resilient country and we will rise from this, as well.”
